Many of the shampoo products in the market today work to deliver benefits to hair by depositing benefit agents such as perfumes, silicones, dyes, and anti-dandruff agents onto the hair during washing. As a result, there is a desire to maximize the effectiveness of such benefit agents by increasing their delivery and retention onto hair. One method of achieving this objective is to encapsulate such benefit agents in microcapsules. While these microcapsules are able to encapsulate a wide variety of benefit agents and deliver them to hair, they are still often washed off of the hair before their benefit can be fully realized. Consumers today desire shampoo compositions that deposit and retain encapsulated benefit agents on the hair and the scalp, even after the rinsing process is complete.
However, obtaining good deposition of microcapsules onto hair during cleansing is further complicated by the action of detersive surfactants in shampoo. Detersive surfactants are designed to carry away oil, grease, and dirt from the hair and scalp, but can also interfere with the deposition of the encapsulated benefit agents. When microcapsules are washed away, relatively high levels of encapsulated benefit agents may be needed in the shampoo composition to deliver the consumer desired benefit.
Accordingly, there is a need for a shampoo composition that provides an increased deposition of encapsulated benefit agents onto the hair. In addition, there is a need for a polymer system that associates with microcapsule surfaces, and that when sheared, allows the encapsulated benefit agents to be released. Furthermore, there is a need for a shampoo composition that provides an increased retention of encapsulated benefit agents onto the hair during the rinse-off process.